Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Protestant theologian & anti-Nazi activist once said, “The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.”
I recently watched the PBS documentary “The First Year” where cameras followed around five different beginning school teachers in the Los Angeles public school system. It was a really good documentary and showed exactly what needed to be seen, however discouraging and even depressing the reality of it.
What really opened my eyes was how utterly alone these teachers are when faced with children’s issues varying from social to learning problems. There is very little guidance given by their superiors and even less conversation with “experts” on how best to work with what they have in helping these kids.
Example #1: A boy showed obvious signs of speech problems. This was hindering his confidence in his learning abilities, and the new, young teacher worked his butt off to help this child by trying to contact the staff speech therapist. The TEACHER did this. No one helped him. Not the principal, not the administrative staff at the school, not the parents. And, for reasons not explained on camera, once contacted by the teacher, the therapist did not show up when expected or scheduled and left the teacher out to fend for himself without notice. After months of waiting, the therapist showed up only to test the child and deem him not a candidate for the speech therapy program. When you see the film, judge for yourself, but I think some things are terribly obvious. In the end, this young teacher decided to spend extra time, his time, to try and help this child himself. Where was this young teacher’s support?
Example #2: There was a boy who was having problems in class, and the teacher worked pretty hard at setting up a meeting with his parents. His issues seemed to be more behavioral, rather than learning, but due to his behavior, his studies suffered. When she finally got his parents to come in, she invited the school counselor to sit in. So there they sat; three family adults, the teacher, the counselor, and this little boy. He was surrounded by adults, and all of them were telling him how he needed to improve upon himself. It was maddening for me to watch because I truly felt it was the wrong approach to helping this child. With the cameras rolling, his parents were on their best behavior, talking to him in a scolding manner, and the father saying how embarrassed he was to have to be called in for this. The counselor just sat there saying nothing. The boy cried silently, looking down almost the whole time.
I’d seen this before, you know. People not knowing what they are doing, so in order to try and compensate for their short comings, they focus on the weak or those with few defenses and lay the burdens on them to do better. This was not the teacher’s fault, as she did seek out advice from her superiors, only to get very little recommendations or creative solutions. She worked with what she had.
I honestly don’t know what programs exist for teaching degrees, but through out time, since I was in school, it’s been obvious to me the adults responsible for educating our children, including the parents, seem to ignore alternative, creative solutions, and reach only high enough for the standard example.
This movie seemed so much of the opposite of the documentary “A touch of Greatness” about a 1940’s teacher named Albert Cullum. It’s a documentary that depicts a man who challenged traditional teaching methods and proved that creativity has a place in every classroom.
Watch “A Touch of Greatness,” then follow it up with “The First Year” and tell me why it is that we continue to choose to ignore historical evidence of what works and what doesn’t work for our children.
Now, after all this, tell me, do you want our society to be judged by how we treat our children?
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